All covenantal forms of government are founded on Christ's “good confession” that man's authority to rule is not “of this world” but that it comes “from above” (Jn. 18:36-37; 19:11; 1 Tim. 6:13). Other than Jesus Christ Himself, no individual or collective has inherent authority that may in turn be mediated to others, acting as a “middle man” between God and others. Jesus Christ is the only true “middle man” between God and man. All others are counterfeits and false gods. In the Kingdom of God both individuals and collectives have a derived, secondary, and subordinate authority as ministers of God that comes directly from Christ who alone has been given “all authority” (Matt. 28:19). Thus the covenantal form of government everywhere and always declares, “there is another king – Jesus” (Acts 17:7). For this reason when human authority is exercised according to the covenantal approach it is ministerial and when it is not it becomes idolatrously mediatorial. The Scripture teaches that there are two distinct humanities, one whose covenantal (or federal) head is Adam and the other whose federal head is Christ. Adam “is a type of Him who was to come” (Rom. 5:14b), the representative head of humanity who fell in seeking autonomous mediatorial authority “like God” (Gen. 3:5). In contrast, Christ, the “last Adam” or “Second Man” is the representative head of the new humanity (1 Cor. 15:45, 46) whom He has redeemed to exercise ministerial authority as God had originally intended. The old humanity in Adam is the seed of Satan and will not inherit the Kingdom of God. The new humanity in Christ is the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) and a “new creation” (1 Cor. 5:17) to which the Kingdom has been given (Lk. 22:29).
Also see Cosmic Impersonalism, Head, Judgment, Ministerial Authority, and “The Opportunity Presented by Members Called to Function Together Ministerially.”